Nurse Manager, Emergency Department

Summary:

The Nurse Manager provides clinical leadership to the Emergency Department and oversight of daily patient care. Coordinates interdisciplinary clinical team for positive clinical outcomes. Hires and supervises patient care staff. Develops and leads professional training of staff. Interfaces with BFMC Patient Care Division and other BFMC units. Participates in program development. Ensures compliance with regulatory requirements.

Job Responsibilities: 

1)  Clinical Quality Management and Service Orientation: Setting and enforcing high standards for the quality of patient care delivered on the unit. Inorporating patient and physician needs and concerns into decision making and organizational action. Enforces highest standards for excellence in patient care (e.g., state of the art clinical practices and safeguards). When necessary, provides coaching on clinical issues that arise on the unit and guidance for expert clinical care. Ensures the highest possible satisfaction of patients and their families. Maintains oversight of Patient Satisfaction strategies to achieve consistent excellence in the overall Quality of Care as determined by PRC data. Implements strategies to improve physician satisfaction (e.g. standing orders, collaboration, clinical quality safeguards) Implements strategies to improve staff satisfaction on unit, (e.g. Employee Opinion Survey, proactive feedback from staff).

2)  Accountability: Holding self and others accountable for meeting objectives and commitments, and adhering to standards even in the face of unforeseen circumstances. Takes responsibility for making difficult or unpopular business decisions (e.g. terminating poorly performing staff, eliminating a unit resource to improve efficiency). Behaves in a way that is consistent with the values he or she espouses. Acknowledges when a decision or plan is not working (e.g. new scheduling system, plan to improve unit morale) rather than making excuses or blaming others. Keeps promises and honors commitments.

3)  Active Listening: Listening carefully to others. Actively soliciting input from others. Consults with others to get their reactions and suggestions before making major changes that will affect them. Listens carefully to any concerns expressed about his or her ideas or plans without getting defensive. Creates a comfortable environment for raising concerns and ideas or providing constructive feedback. Understands both the content and intent of what is said.

4)  Communicating Clearly (verbal and written): Expressing ideas clearly and effectively. Responding to issues raised by others. Ensuring that people get the information they need to do their jobs and providing feedback that enhances performance. Clearly articulates hospital and unit policies, objectives, change initiatives and their rationale. Articulates instructions and information in a clear and timely manner. Provides clear performance expectations and constructive, consistent positive and negative feedback, even when the message is potentially difficult to hear. Clarifies to ensure that his or her intended message was accurately interpreted. Follows through on ideas, suggestions, concerns or feedback, even if only to communicate what is or is not being done.

5)  Motivating and Influencing: Using techniques that appeal to reason, values, or emotions to generate enthusiasim for work, commitment to task objectives, and compliance with requests. Develops enthusiasn for day to day tasks or projects by appealing to your pride in accomplishing a challenging task or doing something never done before. Rallies support for policies and initiatives, incorporating stakeholder' diverse perspectives. Inspires greater effort by setting an example in his or her own behavior of dedication, courage and commitment to high standards. Encourages taking calculated risks to achieve an important objective. Recognizes special contributions and important achievements and rewards excellence. Maintains good working relationships with managers, leaders, and peers outside the unit (e.g. sharing information or providing other assistance). Effectively represents the unit, advocating and lobbying for unit and staff interests.

6)  Managing Vision and Purpose: Leading the process of developing a challenging and realistic vision, ensuring that the vision reflects institutional and individual values and ideals, and establishing specific goals to help people connect the vision to the necessary actions and long-term strategies. Effectively translates hospital strategy and objectives into a compelling and clear vision for the unit or project. Translates the vision into the actions required to attain specific unit/project goals. Takes a longer-term perspective on problems and opportunities facing the unit (considers implications 3 to 6 months in the future and beyond).

7)  Planning, Prioritization and Time Management: Identifying the best methods for accomplishing long- and short-term goals by creating plans and evaluating unit performance objectively. Organizing, coordinating and prioritizing time and resources to improve efficiency and overcome obstacles. Giving people the authority, resources and guidance to make decisions and implement them. Develops detailed plans for accomplishing a task or project (e.g. identifies the sequence of necessary action steps, and then determines when each should be done and who should do it). Determines priorities for different activities and appropriately allocates available resources (e.g. own time, staff time, financial resources). Strives to ensure that the unit staff has the supplies, information and resources needed to work effectively (e.g. suitable and functional equipment and systems).

8)  Problem Solving and Innovation: Analyzing problems in a systematic, logical and timely manner. Identifying and implementing effective and innovative solutions. Identifies potential problems on the unit or on a project (by monitoring key performance indicators) before it is too late to correct them. Analyzes root causes of unit problems, using data when available, before taking corrective action. Considers all relevant issues before acting, keeping in mind the overal goals of the unit or project. Proposes new and innovative approaches for dealing with serious or persistent problems.

9)  Innovative: Recognizing and embracing opportunities for improvement in the service of unit and hospital goals. Seizes opportunities to improve unit performance (e.g. clinical quality, patient satisfaction, staff morale), even in the absence of apparent problems. Acts promptly and decisively to address problems that arise on the unit.

10)  Financial Savvy: Applying key financial concepts to decision making. Understanding how to strengthen the unit through good financial planning and implementation. Demonstrates an in-depth knowledge of the principal drivers of hospital and unit revenues and reimbursement, expenses, and profits when making business decisions affecting the unit or project. Closely monitors ongoing unit financial performance.

11)  Financial Savvy: Applying key financial concepts to decision making. Understanding how to strengthen the unit through good financial planning and implementation. Demonstrates an in-depth knowledge of the principal drivers of hospital and unit revenues and reimbursement, expenses, and profits when making business decisions affecting the unit or project. Closely monitors ongoing unit financial performance.

12)  Teambuilding: Encouraging cooperation, teamwork, and identification with the unit.
Facilitates open communication and join decision making among unit staff. Facilitates cooperation and teamwork among people who depend on each other to get the work done. Effectively develops a strong sense of unit identity, common purpose, and pride in unit activities.

13)  Conflict Prevention and Management: Facilitating the constructive resolution of conflict. Prevents situations from escalating into conflict (e.g. between staff within and across units, between staff and patients) whenever possible. Proactively identifies and resolves conflict when it arises (e.g. between physicians and unit staff). Is fair in negotiating solutions to conflict, giving all parties the opportunity to be heard.

14)  Collaboration: Creates an environment when open, honest communication allows for equality, shared responsibility and mutual respect. Seeks opportunities to build health relationships with others. Creates opportunities for multidisciplinary forums in order to problem solve, facilitate planning and address patient care outcomes. Creates an environment that fosters collaborative relationships as reported in peer/colleague feedback process (360 process).

15)  Developing and Retaining Talent: Assisting employees in developing their careers and ensuring that employees are prepared to assume additional responsibility. Preventing voluntary departures by maintaining a hands-on approach to developing employees. Offers helpful advice on career advancement (e,g, relationships to cultivate, assignments or positions to seek, problems to avoid, etc). Provides opportunities to develop skills and demonstrate competence (e.g. assigns challenging new responsibilities). Personally provides extra instruction or coaching to help improve job skills or teach new staff or pairs inexperienced staff with experienced coworkers to provide this mentorship. Monitors staff retention and satisfaction both quantitatively (through unit indicators, e.g. turnover rate, vacancy rate) and qualitatively (through regular dialogue with staff). Prevents high-impact staff departures when possible.

16)  Identifying and Recruiting Top Talent: Selecting and hiring effective people for the unit staff. Identifying and filling gaps in unit skills and knowledge. Effectively marketing unit job openings to attract highly skilled staff members to the unit or to project teams. Does not compromise in identifying and selecting the best applicants for jobs on the unit. Actively promotes and markets job openings to attract strong applicants to the unit. Identifies and leverages others' unique strengths and capabilities when assigning tasks and responsibilities.

17)  Professional Development: Participates in professional associations in order to support the professional practice of nursing leadership or specialty organizations in order to support the professional practice of nursing on the unit. Holds self and staff accountable to the National Standards of Care identified for the unit and population served. Supports and values an environment of leadership and clinical inquiry and learning through evidence-based research.

18)  Leadership Development: Continues to personally develop leadership in an ongoing and proactive manner. Participates in a self-assessment by the utilization of internal resources (e.g. 360 feedback) for professional development as a nursing leader. Develops a personal development plan in order to strengthen areas identified within the feedback process or areas identified as self-development needs. Seeks opportunities for programs or workships that will meet either professional goals. Continues to develop his/her own clinical competencies, in order to support unit and patient population served by the unit. Participates in and provides leadership to departmental and hospital committees. Seeks timely and proactive feedback and evaluation from staff through formal and informal routes (e.g., Employee Opinion Survey, focus groups, and 1:1 meetings with staff.